December 30, 2013 – Palo Alto, Calif., USA – Shannon Turley is in his eighth year at Stanford University serving as the Kissick Family Director of Football Sports Performance. Earlier this year, his position became the first endowed sports performance directorship in collegiate athletics with the generous gift of John Kissick and his family. Since Turley took over the Stanford strength program, not only have the Cardinal become one of the country’s elite football programs, but games missed due to injury have decreased an astounding 87 percent.
Turley has created a comprehensive player development program designed to achieve three primary goals: injury prevention, athletic performance enhancement, and mental discipline development. Integral parts of Turley’s approach include sports nutrition education, lifestyle management, and sports psychology programming, all of which ensure the physical and mental readiness of Stanford’s athletes. Turley is responsible for planning meals for the team’s training table, travel, and game day to guarantee optimal nutrition and hydration. He also collaborates with the sports medicine staff to develop an individualized, sport and position specific, active integration rehabilitation plan facilitating a successful return to competition of all injured players.
Turley incorporates elements into Stanford’s distinct training regimen from a wide variety of sources. In the corner of his office sits a sophisticated piece of equipment which he explains performs the critical task of player body composition analysis (BCA), which assesses a player’s levels and concentrations of body fat and muscle. This analytical equipment has proven vital in monitoring and achieving Turley’s stated goal of “developing lean, athletic players”.
Unlike many strength coaches, Turley doesn’t focus on having players lift record amounts of weight. He has redefined strength and credits Stanford Head Football Coaches Jim Harbaugh and his successor, David Shaw, with “not being preoccupied with numbers – how much a guy squats or power-cleans, how many reps he can bench press at 225.” Turley focuses on lifting with precisely correct technique. “Forget about the standard expectations of how much weight and how many repetitions players can perform. My guys are never going to live up to those numbers because of our priority on safety and technique. Our numbers are very unimpressive. But we’re not chasing numbers. We are chasing lean muscle, reducing body fat and making guys functionally strong for football,” said Turley.
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